The Incarnation – by Pastor Tony

  Posted on December 27, 2016  by   No comments

Christmas is here.  As such, as followers of Jesus Christ, this date (though the date is superfluous) behooves us to reflect on the wonder of the incarnation.  This is an exercise that oughtn’t be relegated to a few weeks out of the year. Thus, my prayer is that by this article we, as the body of Christ, would be spurred on to thinking about “things above”, like the incarnation, all year long.  

Get ready to seek to drink from a firehose.  The subject of the incarnation is absolutely beyond us.  

The thought of the incarnation is too wonderful for our minds.  Sadly, we have assumed a basic knowledge of who Jesus was for so long that we have forgotten the incredible – and I mean the word “incredible” – in the classical sense here.  

It is too glorious for words, our minds, and our world.  Truthfully, if we spend all our lives meditating upon the concept of the incarnation, we would find our meditation woefully short.  Thus, in comparison to all eternity, a short discussion of the incarnation is negligibly shorter than a lifetime of thought on the subject.   I say all this to make sure you understand, the words we use in discussing Jesus Christ, the incarnation, are not and will not be capable of fully fleshing out who He is.  

What we are seeking to discuss is much like what a discussion of color would be to a blind person. You could spend your entire life trying to explain the concept of color to a blind person and he/she would not be able to even begin to understand.  A person who cannot smell cannot understand smell. It would be like trying to explain what the ocean sounded like to someone who has never heard.  Our senses are limited.  In the same way, our understanding of the incarnation is limited because our senses are limited.

To make matters worse, though this concept is absolutely confounding, there is no more important subject to be considering.  Humanity was forever changed (from our perspective) the day God became man.  In his great book on miracles, C.S. Lewis goes so far to say that the incarnation “was the central event in the history of the earth.” It is the miracle from which every other wonder occurs.  If we are to understand any work of God (or as Paul would describe as “things above”), we must start with, what has been rightly described as, the grand miracle.  

Thus, we have a subject that is beyond any rational human thought, but a subject that every human must consider. For we have been commanded to consider these things (Colossians 3:2).  

So, what is the definition of “Incarnation”?  A basic definition is the ‘Divine Son of God condescending and becoming fully human as a baby.’ The Latin word from which we get the word incarnation means “to make flesh.” Thus, in his benchmark work, Systematic Theology, Wayne Grudem defines incarnation as “the act of God the son whereby he took to himself a human nature” (543).  

So, you may be wondering, ‘why do you believe this concept is so difficult for our minds?’  Let’s begin by asking a seemingly simple question.  How far above us is God?  I don’t merely mean spatially.  I am asking a metaphysical question.  If He is infinite and we are finite, there is an infinite difference between us. He is omnipresent (everywhere) and we are in one place at one time. He is all knowing and we are deafly limited in knowledge.  If we added up the sum of the years that every person has ever lived, we would still be infinitely younger than the one who is the definition of existence.  Any mathematician would inform us that in comparison, we are statistically non-existent.  Time does not bind Him, yet we are shackled with the cuffs of seconds, minutes, and hours -days, weeks, months and years are our masters.  In other words, there is an inestimable gap between us and God.  

To celebrate the Incarnation is to proclaim that Jesus bridged the infinite (impossible) gap between God and man.  This impossible gap could not be bridged without the perfect unity of the deity and humanity of Jesus Christ.  Somehow the two infinitely separate natures must be one person in Jesus Christ.   Any variance in that equation, and the concept breaks down.

Through the years, there have been a constant barrage of variances of understandings of the incarnation (Arianism, Apollinarianism, Nestorianism, Eutychiansim, etc). In each case, there is a failure in one point or another to adequately understand the scope of the incarnation – the two natures in one person.  

So, how can we even attempt understand this subject?  To rightly understand the incarnation, we must simply look to Jesus – that baby who was born so many years ago.  He became what our senses could actually comprehend. Jesus becomes the definition of what we know as the incarnation.  We can now see, taste, smell and touch the impossible.  

How can it be, that the creator of the universe became a helpless baby?  To answer this, we must fix our eyes upon Jesus.  For to be able to fix our eyes upon Him is the miracle of the incarnation.  

As you gather for Christmas gatherings, take some time to read and mediate upon John 1:1-5, 9-18 and Colossians 2:9.  There is no more accurate picture of the impossible incarnation that what His Word tells us.  Let the impossibly tangible Christ be in our thoughts and conversations just as He was when He first breathed the air He created.  

Merry Christmas,

Pastor Tony